Obama’s Google Supporters Moved 80% of Pre-Tax Profits into Bermuda Shell Company

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On December 10, 2012 @ 3:18 pm In The Point | 12 Comments

Google was the third largest source of Obama’s campaign cash. A number of Google executives took jobs within Obama Inc and Google’s PAC has plowed large amounts of money into the Democratic Party.

Google’s creepy ex-CEO Eric Schmidt was a major Obama donor and campaign advisor, and was even considered for a Cabinet post. Schmidt was on Obama’s transition board and is a member of his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Google Inc. (GOOG) avoided about $2 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2011 by shifting $9.8 billion in revenues into a Bermuda shell company, almost double the total from three years before, filings show.

By legally funneling profits from overseas subsidiaries into Bermuda, which doesn’t have a corporate income tax, Google cut its overall tax rate almost in half. The amount moved to Bermuda is equivalent to about 80 percent of Google’s total pretax profit in 2011.

The Internet search giant has avoided billions of dollars in income taxes around the world using a pair of tax shelter strategies known as the Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich, Bloomberg News reported in 2010. The tactics, permitted under tax law in the U.S. and elsewhere, move royalty payments from subsidiaries in Ireland and the Netherlands to a Bermuda unit headquartered in a local law firm.

Last year, Google reported a tax rate of just 3.2 percent on the profit it said was earned overseas, even as most of its foreign sales were in European countries with corporate income tax rates ranging from 26 percent to 34 percent.

I am all for making the rich pay more. The rich liberal statists who spend money lobbying for more spending and higher taxes while refusing to pay for the policies that they want.

Microsoft, Amazon and Google paid for this election. They should begin paying for this election.